north to anoka

OK, I came back to the office and stayed til past midnight and accomplished a lot but certainly couldn't get up early this morning and head straight back to the office, so Jerry and I got in my car and drove to breakfast at one of our favorite mom-and-pop breakfast cafes in one of the near-northern Minneapolis suburbs.  After that, we headed north a little more to the city of Anoka, which in this urban sprawl is technically a suburb too ("outer-ring"), I guess, but at least has a real downtown and its own identity, sort of, and we strolled around the quiet downtown for a while, stopped at an ice cream shop and an antique shop and headed home...

... all of which is inconsequential, but the important part of spending a Sunday morning like that is that it gave me some therapeutic driving time and also gave Jerry and me a chance to talk without interruptions and one or the other of us having to go to work right away...  So we got to catch up with how things are going in our world -- Should we go somewhere after April 15th?  -- Isn't it time for the U.S. to finally give up and get out of Afghanistan?  ... that sort of thing...

... and he had a 2 o'clock appointment to get to, and I needed to get to the office, so the morning was a nice break... We don't ask for much this time of year.

reasons to go back to the office on a saturday night

Sorry to bother you dudes with the debate in my head, but, look, I'm sitting here with Jerry and Clark and they have a Final Four game on, and everybody is sort of (actually, they are loudly) rooting for VCU, which I had never heard of til the other day, and I've already blogged three times this week about basketball and can't do again and I like basketball but I don't LOVE basketball and college basketball per se means nothing to me...

... and here's the deal:  I'm sitting here thinking of work I could be getting done in the office, which if I did could mean I wouldn't need to work so much tomorrow -- Sunday!  or I might end up working just as much tomorrow doing something else that needs to be done... but how nice would it be to have a day to f- off?

... and I just made the mistake of mixing a vodka-cranberry...

resisting the urge to be a fool

I'm trying to be relatively unpredictable -- for me, at least -- and not do some stupid April Fool's trick on here today...

... so I'll head in a different direction, and this is all true.

There is a kind of funny, kind of bizarre event tonight at the Loring Theater, which is a couple of blocks from our condo (The Loring has been around since the 1920 in various incarnations and with various names and is back to its original name).  We won't be there because, first of all, we're going to be booing LeBron James tonight instead at Target Center and who knows whether we would even consider it anyway, but the event is called "Where Tammy Tied the Knot."  You see, back in 1961 the Loring Theater became for a while some sort of Evangelical Center, and it happens to be where Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, who met in Minneapolis, got married 50 years ago today, April 1, 1961.

Jim and Tammy Faye were televangelists back in the '70s and '80s until they met their evangelistic Waterloo with a sex-and-fraud scandal.  Jim went to prison, but Tammy Faye, who in her televangelist days was known for her caked makeup, excessive eyeliner and loopy demeanor, went on to be some sort of pop celebrity and, despite it all, kind of likeable.  She died a couple years ago. 

So tonight is a sort of mock tribute to the Bakkers, with a showing of the documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye and some round-table discussion, followed by an anniversary celebration, with attendees encouraged to wear 1961 wedding-reception garb.  (Who thinks of these things?)  :-)

lebron james is a jerk

I typed "LeBron James is a jerk" as my post title because I'm sort of dreading the thought of seeing him tomorrow night when his Miami Heat team plays our lowly Minnesota Timberwolves.  Then I typed "LeBron James is a jerk" into a Google search and was amazed at how many links there were with that exact title.  So excuse me for being un-original, but if the guy weren't such a jerk people wouldn't be calling him a jerk...

... especially in Cleveland, the city that he betrayed last year by leaving their Cavaliers in a most insulting way.... and then remember how he (and the stupid sports media) made such a big deal about which other team would be graced with his presence?  ... anyway, I've already devoted too much space to the jerk...

... and the Timberwolves, who now have a conference-worst record of 17 wins and 58 losses, just seem to be riding out their few remaining games anxious to get to vacation and the college draft.  Jerry and I stopped at the Wolves-Chicago Bulls game last night, and it was so pathetic that we only stayed for about one quarter.  The place was packed with Bulls fans, and there is nothing more obnoxious in basketball than Bulls fans -- unless maybe it might be LeBron James fans.  We'll see how many of them show up tomorrow night.

equal madness for women

Oh yeah -- that was MEN'S March Madness that I was referring to in the previous post.  It occurred to me afterward that there is also a WOMEN'S Basketball Final Four tournament, which I had heard nothing about this year (Not that I was listening!).  It took some doing, but I was able to find out who the Women's Final Four teams are:  University of Connecticut (of course! -- the one thing I know about women's college basketball is that UConn always wins), Notre Dame, Stanford, and Texas A & M.  Okay.  So there!

madness

Let's take a look around...

"March Madness" (college basketball championships) has been going on, and I'm mostly oblivious to it because I never have time for it in March and because there are just too many teams... Starts with 64 of the best teams -- who can keep them straight? -- and gradually pares down to what is now "the Final Four", the champions to be decided next weekend.  I was just reading that this is the "most unlikely Final Four ever".  Why that is, I don't know.  Here are the 2011 Final Four teams:  University of Kentucky, University of Connecticut, Butler University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.  Enjoy it if you're into this.

what else..?

Well, Obama gave his "why we are in Libya" speech last night, and, although I mostly am a pro-Obama guy (primarily because who the potential alternatives might be), he has lost me on this particular issue.  Our answers always seem to be in our bombs.  He can maybe get away with this because Qaddafi is such a distasteful character, but what will he do when the Saudis start attacking their own protestors? Will we still have the same standards?

dutch boys singing in english and french

This quirky but catchy 1969 song was by a One-Hit-Wonder group named Tee Set, and I didn't realize until I saw this video that they were Dutch and didn't know anything else about them -- it was just a song you heard on the radio. How young they look. I wonder how they look 42 years later.

Speaking of Dutch and French, my son Jon is planning a two-week vacation to the Netherlands, Belgium and France in May... I wonder if he would mind if his dad tagged along.. (Just kidding, Jon!!)... :-)

picking up pixy stix

Card games last night -- Hand and Foot (a Canasta variation), four teams of two, and somehow Jerry and I won the first game, even though our arch-rivals Tom and Ruthie were one of the other teams (They squeaked by to win the second game).

We ordered pizza, and everybody brought snacks and wine and Pepsi, and it was a nice relaxing but competitive evening that went late.  I was sipping Pepsi all evening (wasn't in a wine mood), already getting a sugar overload, and Mark, one of the other players, offered me some Pixy Stix, which I had never heard of and of course everybody yelled at me for not knowing what Pixy Stix are.  They are these straw-like things with colored sugar in them.  I tried one, and then everybody yelled at me for not knowing how to eat them.  You open one end and pour the sugar into your mouth, and it took me a while to figure that out and everybody thought I was a moron.  This is a tough crowd.

... Just what I needed.  More sugar.  Straight.

hanging out with wookies

My son Jon, my longtime co-worker Theresa, and Theresa's daughter Naomi and I did a night at the theater last night -- Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale at the Guthrie Theater here in Minneapolis.  A good production of an odd play, all done very Guthrie-like, "modern" dress (actually the 1950s and the 1970s) -- and no, I don't understand the modern-dress thing either, but that's what they do these days.  And I don't want to go on again about Shakespeare too much since I just had my Ides of March rant last week and I don't want you to think I'm a total nerd (Renaissance man, yes)...

... but one of the major cool things about the Guthrie is the building itself.  Theresa had never been there, so it was fun showing her around.  One of the things I like about the place is a sort-of futuristic, hidden bar on the 4th floor, with a very low ceiling, that for some reason always reminds me of the "wookie bar" in the first Star Wars movie.  That's what Jerry and I call it, The Wookie Bar. I can almost picture Chewbacca on the other side of the bar....

oogling google in real time

Google is so impressive!  But I suppose you already know that.

Blogger (blogger.com), the site I use to create this blog, is connected with Google (I'm not sure how this all works), and I'm impressed first of all by how the Google people recognize when I have posted one of these daily space-fillers.  I mean, if you were go to google.com a few minutes after I publish this and type in "oogling google in real time", I bet that a link to this post will pop up.  So who did it?  Does somebody check to see if I've posted more words of wisdoms, or does it somehow automatically just know?

And you know that I like it when people post a "comment" about whatever I've droned on about.  But there are "spam comments" out there too that you never see but which come through to my email.  They sometimes are in Russian or have links to porn or some marketing link, and the reason you never see them is because Google somehow intercepts them before they actually get posted to my site.  It's all very cool, except for maybe that slight eeriness of "big brother" watching.
*****
It's automatic, not a person checking.  As soon as I published this, I went to Google right away and there it was already.  Powerful!

on a hot tin roof

Yeah, it would be really irritating if I said something like "they don't make movie stars like they used to"...

... I remember back when I was in my early teens -- which means that Elizabeth Taylor was still probably in her late twenties -- one night hearing on the radio that she was in the hospital and possibly near death.  Whatever it was that had her so ill, I don't remember, but she obviously survived that illness and other serious physical bouts over the year.  She, like a cat, may have had "nine lives" (one more than her number of marriages), but she just finished the last one of the nine, and people are genuinely sad over her passing.

My favorite Elizabeth Taylor film was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, maybe followed by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but her greatest performances may have been her very public personal life, especially those wonderful love-hate years of her affair with and then later her two marriages to Richard Burton.

another mystical evening

It's a snowy day, and everybody is saying, "How can this be?", but it's March and Minnesota, so just accept it, guys.

It was another late night at the office for me last night, and I need a break, so Jerry and I are going to drive down to Mystic Lake Casino Hotel and use one of my free-hotel-stay coupons and be away from here for an overnight.  I wonder if that will be enough time for me to in any way unwind.  I need to come back in 24 hours very refreshed.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world, my brother Davy in China is having a birthday today.  Or, with all these time zones between us, maybe it was yesterday?.. (or tomorrow?)...

running on empty

I'm not a workaholic by nature, so it's hard working long hours over a weekend and facing Monday morning after that. Had a good break last night, though, celebrating my son Jon's birthday at Saji-ya restaurant on Grand Avenue in St. Paul -- Jerry and me, my other son Tom, and my sister Joan. And, as we were eating our Japanese dinners, Spring 2011 arrived.

i've looked at clouds from both sides now

Darn.  I was looking forward to seeing the moon last night.  You know I'm kind of a moon freak anyway, and last night's full moon was supposed to be the biggest and brightest of the last twenty years.  I've been reading some Facebook friends' comments this morning about how beautiful it was,  but they are obviously in another part of the country.  We went up to the condo's roof (22nd floor) to see it, and the sky was nothing but clouds all night.  No moon anywhere in sight.

If I have to wait another twenty years to see a moon like that ("as big as a house", as they say in the movie Moonstruck), I might be on the other side of the moon by then, or, if I still happen to be here, another cloudy night will probably in the forecast.  Some things aren't meant to be.
*****
Stormclouds of a different kind on the other side of the world, as American and French airplanes are bombing Libya.  My friend Elke in Germany wrote me last night:  "... before night falls, I want to write an email to you, telling you that I am sad, so sad about this bloody kind of spreading democracy."  That makes two of us being sad.  Do as we say, Qaddafi, not as we do.  I wonder how many innocent people we will kill versus how many innocent people he will kill.  And I wonder what kind of government will eventually replace him.  Remember this -- In the '80s in Afghanistan, we were arming and supporting the rebels who became the Taliban.

evil and ugly too

Libya's Colonel Qaddafi, who until recently we hadn't heard much about since the Reagan days, now gets the prize for the World's Least Attractive Dictator (definitely not aging well!) in addition to apparently being Pure Evil (We always need Pure Evil enemies, you know, and Saddam Hussein is dead and Obama bin Laden is hiding in an unreachable cave).

After all his dictatorial years, Qaddafi has lately been facing massive protests and uprisings from his people, as are other dictators in the Middle East and in North Africa, and he is in the process of squashing that resistance.  The world's leaders, led verbally by the U.S. and militarily by (so far) France and other countries and ostensibly fearing the coming bloodbath, are demanding that Qaddafi give up power to the rebels.

Without question, Qaddafi is a creep and deserves to lose power.  But I'm also thinking, if the United States or France were facing a major rebellion demanding that their governments step down, do you think they wouldn't be bombing the heck out of their own insurrections?

into the abyss

This morning I had to drive to a client meeting way out in an outer-ring suburb; in fact, this suburb is so "outer" that it is almost not a suburb.  A nice but unexciting drive.

... and what I notice, not for the first time, as I go from urban to rural --

--  It takes forever to get out of downtown Minneapolis.  Downtown Minneapolis is not all that big, but the traffic lights seem to be timed to stop you at every possible red light.  It took me almost as long to get out of downtown as it did to drive the rest of the 25 miles to the meeting.  Why purposely mis-coordinate traffic lights?  Just to irritate us? Think of all the time that is wasted, not to mention the gas that is wasted while we are idling at red lights!

--  The roads out in the outer burbs are in much better shape.  The potholes here downtown are vicious already, and my little car is very unhappy about that, having hit some monstrous crevices.

--  But, as I was driving through the sprawl to that outer ring, I'm thinking, wow!  whatever the urban problems might be, how can people live out here in the bland repetitiveness of the 'burbs?  (I guess it's a good thing some people do live out there -- there is already too much traffic here downtown, and having more would just give me something else to complain about)

et tu, dudes?

wow!  How desperate for a post was I yesterday to resort to talking about my calculator blowing up?  (Not that I'm going to guarantee that this one will be any more worthwhile!)

... and that Ides of March thing!  Last night, we sat around at the office drinking wine and eating pizza, sort of celebrating that we had made it through the corporate tax deadline, and I mentioned something about it also being an Ides of March celebration.  My comment brought mostly blank reactions, like, Hey, what's an Ides of March?

"Didn't you people have to read Julius Caesar or any other Shakespeare plays in high school?" I ask, and the answers were mostly No.

"So what did you read in English class?"

Watership Down, one person answers. (!)  Another person says, "We didn't read Romeo and Juliet in English class, but we watched the movie."  --  the Leonardo deCaprio version!

oh help!

"beware...

...the Ides of March!"  It's one of those important dates -- March 15, the corporate tax deadline -- that has ruled my life for the past thirty-some years... so it is good to see it pass.  I should have listened to Shakespeare.

... and I somehow fried my calculator!  The adding-machine tape, as it was coming to its end, unbeknownst to me, was rolling back around the spool and jamming up, and the machine had a meltdown.  As it sizzled away, I wisely unplugged it and avoided burning the office down.

... so I'm getting used to a new calculator today, as this Ides fades into history.

Cooler Hund bringt Baby zum lachen

Translates from German more or less as "Cool dog brings the baby some laughs".... It might make you at least crack a smile. Have a good week!

knowing where to start

I wonder how you know, when your city is destroyed by an earthquake or tsunami, where to start in the re-building process. I mean, how do you put your grief aside -- especially if you have lost your home and all possessions and maybe even loved ones -- and begin picking up the debris? I wonder that too when I see photos or footage of whole cities destroyed during World War II and reduced to nothing but rubble, and somehow those cities didn't cease to exist.

It would be so tempting to run away and start life somewhere else when faced by monumental tasks like that.

I must say, though, that of all the countries that I've visited, Japan gives the impression of being the most organized and practical. These people will figure out how to manage this disaster and will learn from it and be a model for the rest of us when we face hard times. But nobody should have to go through such awfulness.

springing forward

Tomorrow is one of the two days in the year when you realize how many clocks you have in your life -- unless all of your clocks are satellite-driven, of course. Otherwise you need to go from room to room and change each clock by one hour -- the bedroom clocks, the microwave, the oven, your computers, and then your car. It's not so bad when you get to move them back (in the fall) and gain an hour (that's kind of a good feeling), but this losing an hour stuff is kind of a downer. And it's too bad that it always has to come on a weekend.

But at least we, theoretically, gain an hour of daylight, and that might give some people hope of another summer somewhere out there in the future. A few minutes ago, I met my sister Joan for coffee, and she was feeling down, lamenting this "longest winter ever." She said that talking with me actually cheered her up. We wondered if that was a first! :-)

ronnie is home

Had a good long phone chat with my brother this morning. He went home from the hospital yesterday -- for a long stay this time, we all hope! -- is still very weak but improving and just happy to he home after all those weeks in the hospitals. His dog is ecstatic to have him home.

It should be a good day to kick back and watch CNN, Ronnie -- Busy news day in the world: an awful earthquake in Japan. Libya turmoil persists, and there are now even rumblings of protest in Saudi Arabia. All this news from outside our country's borders might even knock Charlie Sheen off the front pages for a few days.

love is in the air

Kevin Love, that is. The star player on our generally star-lacking Minnesota Timberwolves.

We went over to the Wolves game last night because it was to be the game where Kevin could break the all-time (at least, modern times) NBA record for the most consecutive "double double" games by a player, a double double being at least 10 scored points and at least 10 rebounds in a single game. 52 games in a row. And he did it.

... and Timberwolves fans, looking at the Wolves' pathetic win-loss record, have so few reasons to cheer that Kevin got multiple standing ovations, and the atmosphere was fun. And then the Wolves even went on to win the game, trouncing the Indiana Pacers 101-75.

So how long will it be before some other team steals Kevin Love away from us? :-(

tuesday, wednesday, whatever...

When I left work late in the evening last night, I got home and dragged Jerry out to the bar. You know?, I just needed to be somewhere in the outside world, which I sometimes forget exists. And the bar, "the 19", was surprisingly busy, I thought, for a Tuesday night. There was no place to sit and I'm no good at standing around with a drink in my hand, so we went outside on the patio and sipped our drinks under the heat lamps, keeping our coats on in 30-degree temps out there, and we hung out with the smokers and it was a fun crowd.

Only later did it occur to me that it was Fat Tuesday -- the end of Mardi Gras and all the other names that pre-Lenten festival has in much of the world. I doubt that Fat Tuesday was the reason this particular bar was busy -- maybe Tuesday nights are always like that, but I'm kinda surprised I haven't heard anything about Mardi Gras this year (Katie didn't mention it).

And today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and I really have no idea what Ash Wednesday is all about except that I know that people overnight go from partying to having somber and reflective thoughts. I'm not feeling particularly somber. I want to go back to the bar.

the cbs evening news with katie couric

Ruthie, my niece, thinks we're a little strange because we finally got a DVR on our cable TV, which she prodded us to do, and the program that we most consistently record and watch is the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

But hey, I'm working these late days, and there is something kind of weirdly comforting about getting home at 9 p.m. and watching the news that was on at 5:30 and skipping through all those pharmaceutical commercials and having Katie give us the news in that soft style that she has. It's just too bad that the only news lately seems to be Libya and Charlie Sheen, but apparently there isn't much else going on the world or she'd be telling us all about it, I'm sure. And the program always ends with a heart-warming, non-news wrap-up. Thanks, Katie.

ok. that's enough of that.

Let's see if Stevie Nicks can help our week get off to a good start.

reality is overrated

Too many people that I know and care about are sick. Where did all this cancer come from? Was it always like this? Is it the environment, the food we eat? Are people just living longer, and the chances of cancer increase with age? Are certain cancers just detected earlier and treated earlier? -- and we know that sometimes the treatments can be worse than the disease...

Where are the cures? Is there a certain dollar amount -- a trillion dollars, maybe? -- that would ensure or speed up the necessary research? Or would the medical establishment collapse if there were no more cancers? (I guess that was a brutal thing to say, but wow, but they sure make a lot of money on this disease)

My thoughts are with my brother today as he continues to struggle in that Philadelphia hospital. He just wants to feel normal again.

where did i put that extinguisher?

It's easy to get so lost in the trees that you forget you're in a forest and that a forest fire might be heading your way....

... step back. step back.

Get in the car, go for a drive.... The roads are clear.

...March is always such a hard month. Some more than others.

ho hum, it must be time for another invasion

Every day I wake up happy that Barack Obama is President and that George W. Bush or John McCain are not, but that doesn't mean I can't be frustrated with Obama. Not sure that I'd give him more than a "B-minus" grade overall at this time, made a "C-plus"....

... and one of my main frustrations is that we're still mired in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our continued involvement there currently isn't much different than it would be under Bush or McCain.

... But now here comes Libya. The Administration announced this week that "all options are on the table", including a possible invasion if necessary, to remove the evil Qaddafi from power and restore "peace". Oh and what a coincidence -- they happen to have oil there in Libya.

... Don't do it, dude.

ignoring the freak shows

Another case of the more outrageous the rants, the more media attention you get --

-- the Westboro Baptist Church loonies in Topeka, Kansas, who have made a creepy name for themselves by picketing funerals across the country of AIDS victims and soldiers killed in Iraq. They carry signs with slogans like "Thank God for AIDS", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers", "God Hates fags", "God Hates America", etc. They won a case in the Supreme Court yesterday that gives them permission, protected by their free speech rights, to keep doing this. I say, who cares what they to? The important thing is for everyone to stop giving them attention.

Back in the mid-90s sometime, I joined a counter-protest at a church one Sunday morning in south Minneapolis that was quickly organized because the Topeka weirdos (all or most of whom are family members of Rev. Fred Phelps [the hateful pastor of the church]) were going to be picketing the church for being gay-friendly. Hundreds of people, including the mayor and other high-profile people, descended on the church, inside and outside, to show support for the church. Local news people were all over the place covering the story. And there turned out to be maybe six or seven of the Westboro people carrying their pathetic signs. So what were we there for? Calling attention to them, which is just what they wanted. Of course.

The way to make these Phelps people go away is to totally IGNORE them. Every time they get media coverage, there are other hateful people watching ready to write checks to their so-called Christian church.

If, because of this Supreme Court thing, they show up on the cover of Time magazine next week, I'm going to cancel my subscription.

martin's boy, emilio's brother

If there is no such thing as bad publicity, can you imagine the value of all the news coverage that Charlie Sheen is getting these days? The more outrageous his behavior and his interview comments, the more he makes headlines, especially on the Internet, which then leads to more interviews, which leads to more outrageous rantings, which leads, well, you know.....

... and you already know all this, and everybody has Sheen-overload and still it keeps coming...

... But I'm thinking how cool it would be to be Charlie Sheen for one day -- to be able to say absolutely anything that pops in your f-'d-up brain, to be able to loudly badmouth anybody you want to badmouth...

... and, after all that, still have people (like, in Charlie's case, me) who want you to come back to your show.

pacing the skyways

Some days are just kind of hyper, which works well if you happen to be surrounded in your office by too much work. Today was one of those days and turned out to be one of my most productive in a long time: 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. without a break -- with the adrenaline flowing.

But then you need to get out for a while, which is one of the great things about working in downtown Minneapolis. If you need to stretch your legs or get some mental perspective, there are miles of skyways snaking through downtown with never a need to go outside.

Today I could have run through the skyways to use up some of this excess energy, but I walked (briskly) for a few blocks and remembered what the outside world looked like and came back.

But now it's 4:15, and I'm back at the desk, and I need to maintain some of this momentum to work well into the evening.

Tomorrow, I'll crash. If I worked at this pace every day, I'd already be dead by now.

i want to thank the members of the academy

Last night's funniest moment: Kirk Douglas' presentation of the Supporting Actress award.

.... and was Melissa Leo's dropping of the f-bomb accidental? Of course not -- How much press would she be getting this morning without it? And how many people watching this show would be offended if they actually heard the word, especially if they saw most of the nominated films??

... done for another year. On to bigger and better things. Well, maybe not.

the games we play

Needed some physical activity, needed to be out of the office but also off the couch, so I dragged Jerry and Tom to Midway in St. Paul this afternoon for bowling. I'm not much of a bowler, my "form" is laughable, both of them are way better bowlers than I am, but it felt good to knock down some pins.... I've been bowling maybe two times in five years, but it turns out that Midway is cool on a Sunday afternoon... Join us next time.

Cards last night vs. Tom and my niece Ruthie, and we finally beat them. Then we switched over to a game of Racko.... First time for that game in many years.. We had to read the rules for a refresher!...

... mindlessly watching the "red carpet" show now before the Oscar telecast... Lots of games there too before the big competition inside the auditorium ---"winners" and "losers" as the Academy voters compare incomparable cinematic achievements... and for the moment only the PriceWaterhouseCoopers guys know how it turns out... (I always wonder how much they get paid for counting the votes -- I'd do it for free)....

acting and directing

Some more Oscar chat, but be patient, it will be over soon.

My preferences to win the acting and directing awards tomorrow night, keeping in mind that there were some nominated performances in the more obscure movies that I didn't see --

The acting awards --

Best actor (or officially, "Actor in a Leading Role"): Colin Firth in The King's Speech, with big honorable mentions to Jesse Eisenberg and James Franco. Colin will win, I'm sure.
Best actress: Annette Bening in The Kids Are Alright. She is great as Julianne Moore's "other half". But Natalie Portman will probably win this category for Black Swan.
Best supporting actor (or officially, "Actor in a Supporting Role"): Christian Bale in The Fighter. He should be a shoo-in, but don't be surprised to see Geoffrey Rush win for The King's Speech.
Best supporting actress: Melissa Leo, the outrageously pushy mother in The Fighter. She's probably a long-shot to win, but she was perfect.

Best director: David Fincher for The Social Network.

OK. I'm done.

ranking the Oscar nominees

OK, I've never made a movie and "they don't make movies like they used to", so what do I know? But I haven't missed watching the Academy Awards in more than 40 years, and I try to make it a point to see all of the Best Picture nominees ahead of time (now 10 nominees instead of 5), which isn't easy, so my opinion is as good as the next guy's. So here is how I rank this year's 10 Best Picture Oscar nominees, "most deserving to win Best Picture" to "lesser deserving", based on nothing other than my own personal tastes and limited knowledge of film-making excellence!

1. The Social Network. Jesse Eisenberg is a natural playing Facebook founder Mark Zukerberg. Interesting story, fictional or not.
2. The Fighter. Loved this movie. Superb acting by all those actors playing the family members.
3. The King's Speech. This one will win the Oscar, which is okay, it's a fine movie. The Academy always approves of these British monarchy stories.
4. 127 Hours. This is one of two films on the list that I didn't want to see but saw anyway and ended up liking it a lot. James Franco is great.
5. Black Swan. Scary stuff backstage at the ballet. Was a little disappointed but was still impressed by this movie. Loved the Swan Lake music, of course.
6. Toy Story 3. The other movie that I resisted seeing, but we watched all three Toy Story movies and loved them. We liked 2 the best.
7. The Kids Are Alright. This is the most fun movie on the list. Annette Bening is very convincing!
8. True Grit. You know I love the Coen Brothers, and this movie is okay but no Fargo or Big Lebowski. Drags some of the time. Jeff Bridges is cool, of course.
9. Winter's Bone. An interesting, relatively low-budget movie. Very suspenseful story about meth use in the Ozarks. Wouldn't make you want to go there on vacation.
10. Inception. Not a bad movie. Just not my cup of tea.

The Academy Awards will be on TV this Sunday night.

Tomorrow: Acting awards.

who is justin bieber?

Versatile, aren't I?.. Who else can blog about a serious issue like union-busting one day and Justin Bieber the next?

... But Justin Bieber, the current 16-year-old heartthrob for teenage and pre-teen girls, just recently came into my awareness, and now he seems to be everywhere I turn -- movies, TV, the Grammys, concerts, fanatical fans, the news....

... He's from Canada, and I have to say I kind of liked his response in a recent Rolling Stone interview when he was asked if he'd like to become an American citizen: "You guys are evil," he replied laughing, "Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard's baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby's premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home."

Anyway, I found that kind of amusing and also more astute than I would expect. Over time, we'll see what the "Beliebers" and the media attention do to this squeaky-clean-image kid. Keep in mind, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears once had squeaky-clean images too.
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Tomorrow's blog: I rank the Oscar nominees.

solidarity of a dwindling minority

I'm obviously not a union member (although I was a Teamster for a summer long ago, if you can picture that), but I am a progressive and am a person who recognizes the value of the union movement and what unions have done for the working people of the U.S....

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... so I joined a couple thousand mostly union members at a rally in the rotunda of the State Capitol Building in St. Paul yesterday to show solidarity with the protestors in Wisconsin, who are just about to lose their collective-bargaining rights.

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The rotunda was packed and I was never able to get close enough to even see the speakers or even hear what was being said, but I was at least part of the cheering crowd. It was inspiring and hopeful. Stepping back from this rally, though, I was sad. Unions have been demonized these days by "conservative" politicians and the media, all of which is driven by the interests and money of Big Business (which has always of course been anti-union), and workers have become divided, union vs. non-union and even anti-union. Only 11% of the working population is union now, compared to 35% in the mid-50s. The voice of union workers has become diminished, and in this political climate this will only get worse. The middle class of the U.S. is disappearing fast.

friends we never meet

I've had a couple of my faithful blog-readers ask me, out of concern, for updates on how my brother Ronnie is doing. The short answer is, he's still in the hospital in Philadelphia and hanging in there mentally, his sense of humor intact. He's still pretty miserable, is in pain, has a hard time eating even the softest of food. The doctors are still encouraging, saying he will recover once they get his blood counts back to something reasonable and once they figure out what the chronic leukemia is doing. We sure hope so. I had a good phone chat with Ronnie on Sunday. His attitude is good, he's just understandably tired and bored being in that little hospital room of his.

But some of these people showing concern will never meet Ronnie and sometimes haven't even met me. How cool that is. That's one of the ways the Internet has changed some of us, I guess -- for instance, we now have our Facebook "friends" we've never met but with some new connection to our lives.

I have an Internet friend named Paige who lives in northwestern New Jersey. Our connection originally was that we both liked John Irving novels (I used to have a John Irving web site, you know, until it sort of blew up), and we have kept in touch through occasional emails and Facebook of course. Recently, she mailed me a book -- Boardwalk Memories: Tales of the Jersey Shore. She knows I like books and she knows I'm a fan of the Jersey Shore (the place, that is, not the MTV progam!). How thoughtful and considerate of her. There are so many sweet yet interesting people in the world. I'm glad I know some of them, even the ones I'll never see in person.

president's day 2011

When I was a kid, we had holidays for Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th) and Washington's Birthday (February 22nd), and somewhere along the line they were smershed into a generic Monday holiday called "President's Day", which implies that all of the Presidents are worth celebrating (Harding? Nixon? W?). Even though there are definitely some odd characters on this list, I hope you enjoy!

44 FACTS ABOUT OUR 44 PRESIDENTS IN 4 MINUTES

ok ruthie, we have a dvr.... now what?

My niece Ruthie has been prodding us to get the DVR (sorry, I don't know what DVR stands for) option for our cable TV so that we can record programs and not have to be home to see them at the scheduled time and also to be able to fast-forward through commercials, which in itself was the selling point that got my attention. The last thing we need is to watch more TV, but we finally gave in and had Ruthie's husband Ryan (who works for the cable company) come over and bring a DVR-ready cable box and install it. It screwed up our universal remote for a few days, but now that's been fixed and we are officially a DVR household.

So what do we do now? We set our CBS Monday night shows and also The Big Bang Theory to record, but as I scroll through the viewer's guide on this snowy evening, I'm finding it hard to find something else tape-worthy. Daytime TV? well, let's look. How about Ellen, Jeopardy!, or the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric? All fine programs in their own way, I'm sure, but do I need them? Nightime TV? -- A lot of unfamiliar and unappealing titles. I'm certainly not going to tape any of those American Idol-type shows!

What I need is some guidance... Ruthie??

what's happening in madison, wisconsin

Jerry tells me that there's a gathering tomorrow night in St. Paul in support of the Madison, Wisconsin pro-labor protestors, and he wants to go and so do I, I think. The Wisconsin governor and Republican legislators are attempting to shut off collective-bargaining for all public employees (which includes teachers) -- in effect, to bust the public unions. The Democratic senators, who are in the minority but are needed to make a quorum, have left the state of Wisconsin to make sure the vote doesn't come to the floor, and tens of thousands of protestors have descended on Madison to show support.

On Tuesday, Tea Party counter-protestors are showing up in Madison. Union supporters vs. Tea Partiers -- opposite ends of the political spectrum!

Jerry says he heard somebody say that what is happening in Madison is the beginning of this country's "Egypt moment." That is probably an overstatement, but it does raise a question: Politics are so polarized now, at what point does the Revolution or the Civil War begin?

'Wish I could take a couple days off and drive over to Madison.
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Added later: The rally in St. Paul at the State Capitol is Tuesday at 4 p.m. We will be there.

breastfeeding politics

First Ladies of the U.S. always have a worthy "cause" during their husbands' Presidencies. Lady Bird Johnson's cause, for instance, was "beautifying America". Laura Bush's cause was literacy (Which is kinda funny, considering who her husband was).

Michelle Obama's cause, so far, is trying to prevent obesity, especially childhood obesity, which has become a widespread problem in this country. Recently, as part of her program, she has articulated the benefits of breastfeeding, because breast-fed babies generally have less tendency towards obesity later in their childhood. The IRS, in conjunction with this, has announced or clarified that breast pumps can be taken as a medical deduction on individual tax returns.

Needless to say, there is nothing that either President Obama or Mrs. Obama can ever say or do that doesn't get a negative political response from somebody, and in this case the loudest response came from Congresswoman/Tea-Party-nutcase Michele Bachmann, who mouthed off that a First Lady advocating breastfeeding is "government interference" in people's lives. Ms. Bachmann, of course, has no issues with other "government interference" -- for instance, the government deciding who has and who does not have the right to marry. Mrs. Obama is not trying to force any mother to breastfeed -- she's just giving advice. There is no Defense of Breastfeeding Act.

darn those girl scouts!

My admittedly half-assed diet is suffering this week as I learn my weaknesses and my pitiful lack of willpower.

Who brings these snacks to the office? This week it's been Girl Scout cookies causing my downfall. First, the thin mints, my favorites. Now I just had a couple of those Samoas, and there on the side of the cookie box are those stupid "nutrition [or lack thereof] facts": 2 cookies equals 140 calories! .... and who can eat just two? Not me. They are gone -- I ate the last one. No more Girl Scout cookies for another year, but what's next.

the sound of money

The Grammy Awards historically have never had anything to do with musical excellence and the award show is basically a waste, but I wanted to see Mick Jagger so I watched most of the show Sunday night, first time watching in many years. The performances and the awards this year would lead anybody to the conclusion that the current popular music scene in 2011 is dismal. Extravagant production numbers and squealing hired "fans" can't cover up the fact that this music is BORING and unexceptional. The most popular singers these days are just corporate creations and products.

But Mick Jagger, who became a product at some point in his career but at least started out as a kid putting together a band with his neighborhood friends, looked good. He was singing a tribute to soul-singer Solomon Burke, who passed away a couple months ago. Too bad he couldn't have come up with a better Solomon Burke song. And it took three hours of Grammy nonsense to get to hear Mick. I should have used the DVR.

reelin' in the years

As I was driving my sister Joan from her appointment back to her office, the 70s station was on my Sirius Radio, and she was saying that she thought that Steely Dan was a pretty dull band. I said, what about that one Steely Dan song that I always liked so much? and I couldn't think of the name of it.... I hate it when I can't remember things....

We had lunch at KFC after her appointment, were both feeling a little down because our brother Ronnie went back into that Philadelphia hospital yesterday and was having another blood transfusion any minute, according to his phone texts to us. Joan had just gotten a text from him saying, "Keep praying that I'm going to beat this thing, dammit!" (We were proud of him for his determination and also for using "praying" and "dammit" in the same sentence)

She and I talked about how do people as they age ever get used to seeing their family and friends having serious health problems? Older people seem to learn to take it in stride and somehow not be in constant depression. Or maybe things are not always what they seem.

"Oh, I remember the name of the Steely Dan song!" I said as it finally occured to me when we were almost back to her office. "'Reelin' in the Years!'"

"Are you reelin' in the years, stowin' away the time?....."

I bet you remember that one.

five minutes out of 127 hours

In my quest to see all 10 Best Picture Oscar nominees, the one I was dreading was 127 Hours; I mean, no one wants to a James Franco character cut off one of his arms, even if it is to save his life. Jerry is even more squeamish than I am, so he wouldn't go with me to see it, but I talked my son Tom into it. He has seen so many of his brother Jon's slasher movies over the years that what's a little more blood and gore, especially when it's just a five-minute scene?

Again, it's about expectations, and I was expecting to be sort of repulsed by the film, but I must say, It's very good. James Franco is great as the guy stuck in the ravine who must decide how much his life means to him.

This movie will go to DVD soon, but it won't be the same on the small screen as it is in the theater, where you will feel like you're stuck there in that hopeless situation with him.

good mood food

A cool photo of my son Tom last night at the Wolves game, posing with three distinguished members of the Timberwolves Dance Team. Have you ever seen Tom look happier?

And it was a beautiful evening as temperatures finally inched above freezing. We walked along Hennepin Avenue getting to the game, through the Hennepin Theater District, where I was amused by the marquees. First, there at the Orpheum Theater: Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, Christian hipsters from the '80s. Then at the State, Boz Scaggs was appearing. Boz Scaggs was mostly in the '70s, a minor music figure I assumed, and I know so little about him that I was surprised that he could possibly have enough fans left to fill the State Theater.

But the marquee at the Pantages Theater was the cool one: "Arby's Annual Meeting: Good Mood Food." It's funny to think of Arby's corporate people having a meeting, don't you think? What do they talk about? The newest roast-beef sandwich, the one that will put their customers in a good mood? As fast food goes, Arby's isn't so bad, I guess, but I don't remember it ever putting me in a good mood, not so far anyway. On the other hand, when have you ever seen me in a bad mood? Or do you have to already be in a good mood to go there? And more importantly, how sick are you of my rhetorical questions??

speech or no speech

A fun evening last night. We stopped at the Saloon for Happy Hour, then walked down the street to see Oscar-nominated, maybe Oscar-favorite The King's Speech. A good movie, but my expectations may have been a little too high, and you know how that goes. Colin Firth will probably win (and deserves) an Oscar for his portrayal of King George VI (Queen Elizabeth's dad), a sort of accidental king overcoming a stammer to inspire England through World War II.
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I'm not sure who it is that is inspiring the Egyptians through their current, mostly non-violent Twitter Revolution -- who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, who are we rooting for? It constantly amazes me that with all the 24-hour news coverage we have available to us that we know so little about anything outside the borders of the United States. Who knew that President Hosni Mubarak was such an oppressive tyrant or that he somehow made himself some 40 billion dollars on the backs of the Egyptian people? And why did his vice president have to be the one to announce Mubarak's resignation? The dude was too busy to make his own resignation speech? Maybe he was scrambling to hide all the money that was way too much to hide under his mattress.

the rach 3

As a Christmas present, my son Jon gave us tickets to last night's Minnesota Orchestra concert of Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich. He knows that Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #3 (the "Rach 3") is a favorite of mine. Jerry asks me, "If you like this piece so much, why don't you learn to play it?" HA! The Rach 3 is one of the most demanding piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire, way beyond my talents and ambitions.

Did you see the 1996 movie Shine? It's based on the true story of pianist David Helfgott, abused as a boy by his father into a concert pianist career, and it was the Rach 3, due to his father's pressure to master it and the difficulty of the piece itself, that drove him to a mental breakdown and years in an institution. It's a good story.

Anyway -- the Minnesota Orchestra, led this time by Andrew Litton, and especially the piano soloist Jon Kimura Parker did a masterful job, with no apparent nervous breakdowns. We loved it. We also enjoyed the Shostakovich 12th Symphony (the least performed of his 15 symphonies), but on an emotional level Shostakovich, with his more calculated efficiency, can't compare with the romantic excitement of Rachmaninoff.

Thanks, Jon! Great gift!

siriusly sinatra

Today while I work my music choice is the "Siriusly Sinatra" channel on Sirius Radio. It's all Frank Sinatra and Sinatra-era music, and it not bad, at least once in a while. Kind of reminds me of my mom, who was a "serious" Frank Sinatra fan before she was married. She used to go to Atlantic City and see him at Steel Pier, back in the day. My favorite Sinatra recordings are the Cole Porter songs, especially "I've Got You Under My Skin." If somebody would have told me when I was a teenager that one day I'd ever be listening to my mother's music, even for an isolated day here and then, I would have been appalled.

Tonight, we're going to a Minnesota Orchestra concert to hear Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto. My mom would have liked that too, I bet.

the uninjured one buys lunch

Jerry and I picked up my son Tom at work at noon and took him for lunch at the Day by Day Cafe over there on 7th Street in St. Paul, where they spent a good part of the time comparing their recent sports injuries and their remedies and their slow recoveries.

First, Tom got knocked down during a basketball practice last Wednesday night, somehow landing on his head and his foot at the same time. You know how basketball is -- you're moving in multiple directions at once, who knows how these things happen? He limped off the court in major pain and later went to Urgent Care to have his foot x-rayed. No broken bones but a nasty sprain and a temporarily purple foot which isn't too attractive. He's still having a hard time walking, which is why we were picking him up in the first place -- so that he wouldn't have to mess with taking the bus home from work.

Then last Saturday Jerry fell while ice skating and landed just wrong, messing up his shoulder. He had taken Jose and Jose Felix ice skating over there at Rice Park in St. Paul. Jose Felix, who had never ice-skated (or seen snow) before, was a pro, apparently drawing on his roller-skating history and his relative youth. Jerry, who has ice-skated many times in his life, took the fall and as result has had pain and trouble sleeping and anxiety over the possible extent of his injury. His chiropractor says there is nothing seriously wrong, just needs a little recovery time. Let's hope she knows what she's talking about.

I had oatmeal for lunch. I know that sounds weird, but the oatmeal at the Day by Day is the best!

the ramparts we watched

How pathetic yet lovable we Americans are. The day after the Superbowl, people stand around at work and discuss which commercials were best (Pepsi Max this year) and how Christina Aguilera screwed up the words of the National Anthem (which of course is easy to do -- what the heck are "ramparts" anyway?), and within two weeks everyone (other than Packer fans) will forget which teams were even in the game. But a record-setting 111 million people in the U.S. watched the game. So somehow it's working -- a national, kinda twisted reason to party.

oh, it's diet time again

... starting today, Monday... counting calories for three or four weeks, maybe trying to knock off 5 to 10 pounds.... And back to a gym routine. February and March are my most self-disciplined months, which in my case isn't saying a lot, but I might as well take advantage of them while they're here. Join me if you feel the need.

flight paths

Jose and Jose Felix are packing, we'll be taking them to the airport in a few minutes with maybe brief stops on the way at IKEA and Mall of America. Even though I was working most of the time when they were here, they had a good time with Jerry experiencing the joys of Minnesota winter. Jose Felix and I went to the Timberwolves game last night. He was very excited to be going to an NBA game -- he said it's kind of a Puerto Rican guy's dream. He loved every minute of the game. He says he loves every minute of his life. Even when his ears were freezing as we walked home. Oh, to be 31 again!

So, anyway, they're flying out, back to tropical temperatures. Minneapolis/St. Paul to Orlando, Florida to San Juan.
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My brother Davy called yesterday. He's the brother in San Antonio, Texas, where they actually had snow the other day -- an unusual occurrence. Tuesday he flies back to China to begin another semester of teaching English. San Antonio to San Francisco to Shanghai and then by train to the city three hours from there where he'll be teaching (A city he hasn't been to yet). You know how he loves China, but it's sometimes hard to think of him living so far away. I need to visit him during one of these in-between-semesters when he's in San Antonio. We should spend more time together. And remember, Texas is one of the three states that I haven't been in yet.
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It's Superbowl Sunday (yawn)... How many people this week asked you where you'd be watching the game?

a date with an atheist

A Saturday at the office --

I was anxious to hear how my co-worker Mary's date went last night. She now and then meets guys who have been "matched" to her through an online dating site, and some of her stories about her "dates" are entertaining, often amusing. She had told me ahead of time she'd be meeting this new guy, and when I had asked her what she knew about this latest dude, she said "He's an atheist." That label seemed to make Mary, a recovering Catholic and spiritually undefined, a little apprehensive. Or maybe it just seemed odd that this was information he was volunteering before they even met.

So I asked her how it went, and she said it went okay! "He's a really nice guy." Like she was expecting a self-described atheist to be not nice? I've known plenty of nice atheists and have known plenty of non-atheists who are definitely NOT nice. So go for it, Mary. Maybe you can convince him to convert to whatever it is you are, if you ever figure that out. :-)

mid-winter sports update

Football: Even though I'm kinda sad that football season has ended, it's generally hard to get too excited about the Superbowl because a) the Superbowl show itself is pretty irritating and b) it's usually two lame teams that are playing. This year is certainly no exception in the b) category: the Green Bay Packers vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers. As I walked through the downtown Minneapolis skyways today over my lunch hour, I noticed a lot of people wearing Packer jerseys because of course we have a lot of Packer fans around here, since Wisconsin is a just few minutes from here. The downside of the Packers winning the Superbowl is that we would have unbearably obnoxious Packer fans around us that we'd have to hear spouting off next week. Pittsburgh is at least far away and there aren't many Steeler fans around here, so we at least don't have to listen to their loud mouths. But the Steelers have already won so many recent Superbowls, so how boring would it be if they won again? So maybe I'll sort of root for the Packers, since I sort of like Aaron Rodgers their quarterback. And we wouldn't watch at all (we were planning on going to the movies that day), but Diane and Tony, lusting after our big screen HD TV,wanted to come watch with us, so we can at least enjoy their company while the game drags on. And then no more football til another summer is gone. :-(

Basketball: My brother Ronnie (who is feeling better, by the way) and I were discussing the weaknesses of the NBA (National Basketball Association) last night on the phone -- or maybe it's the weakness in the media coverage of the NBA -- that only wants to focus on the "super" showcase teams -- currently, the Lakers, the Celtics, and the Heat -- while ignoring most of the other less super-starred teams, who become punching-bags year after year. This causes weak franchises and fan bases that drift away. And, speaking of punching-bag teams, my local favorite, the Minnesota Timberwolves, at about the midpoint of the season, have now won 11 games and lost 37. Ouch. It's getting harder and harder to give away our season tickets.

Hockey: The Minnesota Wild struggled in the first half of this season but lately have been HOT. Go, Wild! And over there in the other conference, my sentimental favorite, the Philadelphia Flyers, are one of the top teams of the year. A Stanley Cup year for them?

Baseball: Spring training starts later this month. Even if you hate baseball, ya gotta feel good about that!

one and a half men

I only have three or four current TV shows that I watch regularly, and one of them is Two and A Half Men, a show in which Charlie Sheen plays the part of a character who is a wild irresponsible drunk who spends inordinate sums of money on prostitutes. Charlie Sheen himself is also a wild irresponsible drunk who spends inordinate sums of money on prostitutes, and occasionally he makes the real-life news for getting into some sort of trouble involving his real-life excesses. Until this week. Now he has reportedly checked himself into rehab, and the network has announced that the show is on hiatus until Charlie the actor gets back (because a show named Two and a Half Men obviously can't go on with just one and a half men).

And everybody, including me, is wishing Charlie the actor good luck in rehab and hoping it "takes" (which it usually doesn't -- right, Lindsay?). But when he returns to the show (which he will, since this is one of the most popular shows on television), what happens to Charlie the character? Will an in-recovery Charlie Sheen still play an out-of-control drunk? Or will the Charlie character on the show have a re-awakening and get sober? In which case, what would the show be about? And how did I let myself get tangled up into even using my brain on such questions?

vacationing in the opposite direction

Due to the nature of my work, I can't be taking winter vacations, but everybody else around me (other than co-workers) seems to be headed for short trips to warm places. A nice break from the sub-freezings if you can afford it...

Then there are the anomalies: the people who come to Minnesota during the winter instead of leaving it. My niece Becky was here a couple weeks ago, visiting from Philadelphia. Philadelphia isn't quite as wintry as Minnesota is, but it's not all that much different -- maybe not so big a deal. But now we have visitors coming from somewhere much warmer: San Juan, Puerto Rico. Jerry lived in Puerto Rico for a year many years ago, and his friend Jose from back then is paying us a visit and bringing along a friend of his, Jose-Felix.

...And they are actually excited about coming here. Having lived in the Caribbean his whole life, Jose-Felix has never in his life seen snow. He will see plenty here. They want to go ice-skating and skiing. The St. Paul Winter Carnival is going on this week, so Jerry is going to take them to the ice-sculptures in Rice Park. You get the picture.

We'll see if they still want to do all those romantic-sounding activities once they step off the plane tonight and the temperature is zero degrees.
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It's February 2, Groundhog Day, and the groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, didn't see his shadow, so that means an early spring. HA!
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I just read that Anderson Cooper was attacked by an angry mob in Cairo today. What the heck are you doing in Egypt, Anderson? Do you really have to be there to report the story? This isn't a hurricane!

getting turned off

The anti-government protests in Egypt are getting larger and more dangerous, and that country is in major crisis. Apparently the Egyptian government thinks it's not in its best interests that the angry mobs be able to communicate with each other, so their government has for the moment shut down their Internet. Which makes me wonder, how do they do that? Do they just flip a switch and it's gone? Could our government do that too? And what would that look like if the Internet were suddenly gone, even for a day? Would it get us away from our computers and into the streets, developing into a rabid mass of Twitter-less nomads?

As Conan was saying in his monologue last night, if you want people to stay immobile in their homes, then the last thing you'd want to do is get rid of the Internet!

moody mood?

(This is one of those videos that, if you watch it, you should click that little "x" so you won't see the advertisements)...

I saw that tickets went on sale Saturday for a Moody Blues concert here at the Orpheum in June, so I've been debating whether to maybe buy tickets or not. First of all, I'm not good at planning that far ahead. And am I really that much of a Moody Blues fan, even though they've had some very likable music since the mid-60s? And what do they sound like at this age?.... and yet.......

Anyway, I like this song from the 80s. The video is kind of corny, but there are times when I'm in the mood for corny. As you know.

suite smell of success

Oh wow. I'm so tired and was headed up to bed when I realized that, Damn! I hadn't blogged yet today! and I have a streak going! so here it is, faithful readers...

Tonight, Jerry and his business partner Clark had a Client Appreciation Party upstairs in the condo's party room (22nd floor) and needed my niece Ruthie to help out, which left me to be the babysitter for Ruthie's kids, Corey (2 years old) and Kylie (1). They are sweet kids and we had fun watching Toy Story movies together, at least until it became bedtime when they quickly became tired of Uncle Howard and suddenly nothing could please them. You know how that goes. And Uncle Howard got tired of changing their diapers, so I guess we're even, and Ruthie came back and saved the day.

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Last night! Our office, maybe 16 of us, had a, what?, Team Appreciation Party? at the Timberwolves game. We had a suite for the evening, which would have been cool no matter how the Wolves did, but the Wolves actually broke their losing streak and hammered the Toronto Raptors, who apparently are even worse than the Timberwolves are. So it was a rewarding evening. And the reason I picked the Toronto game for our suite night? --- So that I could hear "O, Canada!", which I love. Those Canadians are lucky to have a cool national anthem!

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Well hey, I need to push the "publish" button before midnight strikes. Gotta keep the streak alive.

toy stories

One of my weird little quirks is that I like seeing the all of the Best Picture Oscar nominees every year (Which isn't easy anymore now that there are ten nominees instead of five). The Oscars will be held in late February, and I've seen six of the ten.

The sixth one was last night, and I'll tell you about that. I was dreading it. Toy Story 3. Not only did we not want to see it, but we were thinking, can we see Toy Story 3 without seeing 1 and 2? But all three were on Pay-Per-View, so over the last couple days, we bit the bullet and watched all three movies. And this is why it's good to have low expectations: We loved all three. A cute story, unbelievable animation, appealing Disney-type characters. I think maybe we liked 2 the best of the three. 3 shouldn't be the Best Picture of the year, but it sure deserves to be in the Top Ten.

So four films yet to see and only one to actually dread seeing: that one where James Franco cuts his arm off. Yuck! We're going to wish we were back hanging out with the toys.

updating

I talked to my brother Ronnie on the phone a few minutes ago. He sounded better and says he maybe feels better than he has since early December. He should be going home from the hospital again soon. Best news of the week.

An exhausting day here at the office, but I'm not complaining. It's a job, and it even has its occasional rewards. Life is good.

Weekend will bring some relief even while I'm working. The phone won't be ringing, and it's the phone that I learn to dread.

knowing when to be afraid... (always)

Wow. The Department of Homeland Security is finally doing away with the color-coded terror alert system, which had to be one of the silliest ideas ever conceived.

I mean, look at this chart. What is the difference between "elevated" and "high", or when does "high" become "severe"?.. And if the risk goes from orange to red, what do you do then? Stay home, not go to work? Cancel your plane reservations? Or were the alerts just a reminder that we should live in FEAR?

And you might be interested to know that the alert has not been below orange since August 2006. Would it have been such a big deal to reduce it to yellow now and then? Or did they just need to be able to say, "Well, you can't say you weren't warned!" if there is an actual terrorist attack?

We'll see what they replace this with. Whatever it is, it won't be any less useful.

you say you want a resolution

I got home from work last night as the State of the Union address was wrapping up and couldn't handle the idea of listening to the talking-head analysis or the other-party responses (If I were a Tea Partier -- which is hard to even imagine -- I would be very upset that a dumbass like Michele Bachmann has become the spokesperson for the movement), so we flipped over to Pay-Per-View and watched, Winter's Bone, a film that I hadn't even heard of til yesterday when it was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It's an intense movie -- meth use in the Ozarks kind of stuff. Very low budget but pretty good.

So I got to bed kind of late but still woke up at 6:15 this morning and thought, what the heck?, and headed to the gym again (But am I becoming sleep-deprived?). And I must say, it surprises me how many people are at the gym that time of day, a workout before work. It's been busy after work too, which is when I usually go, and I think that's because New Year's resolutions haven't been totally blown off yet. January is always a busy month every year at every gym, and it's amusing to watch the crowds begin to gradually dwindle as the new year moves along and good intentions fizzle out. Sort of like a new Congress.

resisting at the egg and i

Worked late last night, as I will be working long hours morning and night until April. I get into a routine, a groove to get through it all, but then I wake up some mornings and resist that routine and take a break.

Well, it didn't help that I woke up in the middle of the night all conjested and runny-nosed and all that, and I thought, Damn! I'm getting a cold because I haven't been going to the steam room at the gym lately. So I got up extra early and went to the gym and steamed the heck out of my head and lungs and we'll see if that helps. Feels better so far.

Then I went back home and pulled Jerry out of bed and said, "Hey, let's go out to breakfast!" So we went over to the Egg and I Restaurant over there in Uptown and had an utterly fantastic breakfast and had a chance to catch up on what's been going on.

So I got to the office a couple hours later than I would have normally but now should be more productive (except for the five minutes writing this blog) and with some better perspective... Back to work... well, after I check out the Oscar nominations that were just announced this morning...........

easing into the last week of january

Some days, you just need Chopin. Other days, you need the Rolling Stones.

let's get radical

My brother Ronnie, much to his dismay, is back in that Philadelphia hospital -- fever, pneumonia remnants, fluctuating blood counts. I talked to him this morning, he's depressed and scared. And he's very unhappy that he's back in that dingy little hospital room. This has been a long, awful ordeal for him, and I'm sure he also is stressed at the financial implications of this period of no income and unknown medical costs.

Then I called my cousin Bev to update her on Ronnie's condition, and that was another sad phone call. Bev has gone through hell with breast cancer and the treatments 0ver the past two years and is now dealing with overwhelming medical bills and no job and the possibility of losing her home because of this illness.

... and while they and millions of other people have to struggle with the financial trauma of medical catastrophes, the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to repeal the Obama health care law, the benefits of which haven't even kicked in yet. The bill will not survive in the Senate so repeal won't happen now at least, but I am disgusted that these Congresspeople would be willing to sell their souls for the insurance companies and go back to disgraceful policies that have already destroyed so many lives, which the Obama law only begins to correct. Shouldn't there be some innate benefit to being an American citizen? Can't obscene profits be taken out of the health care system? If that is socialism, then I say, Bring it on.

My feeling is this: Nobody should be making a profit on somebody else's cancer. There has to be a better way, and, if government is the answer, then so be it.

if you're thinking about moving to minnesota...

As we deal with a couple days of subzero temperatures and a snowier than usual winter and as we're thinking, "Hey, Becky likes it here -- Wouldn't it be nice if she moved here?", here are some of my words of wisdom for people considering a move to Minnesota and thinking "I don't know if I could handle the Minnesota winters!"

-- If you have a car, make sure you have a garage or some other kind of indoor parking; otherwise, make sure you have a good snow shovel and battery cables and that you stay informed on parking restrictions during snow emergencies.
-- Live somewhere near your job. Commuting during bad weather is a major stress-inducer (And commuting during good weather is really no picnic either).
-- Live in or somewhere near the urban core of Minneapolis and St. Paul. I used to live out on the prairie in southwestern Minnesota for a while, and it's a whole different world out there when the weather is bad. For one thing the wind never stops blowing. Wind chills and snow drifts can be ridiculous. Plus, there are lots of things to do here in the Cities even when it's cold. If you're out in the boonies, you're going to have major issues with cabin fever.
-- Focus on all of the positives of living here. Winters are something you sort of get used to.

a higher percentage of good-looking people

My niece Becky, who lives in the Philadelphia area, visited us here in Minneapolis last summer and liked it here, noting how many fun places there are, how clean it is, how there seems to be a higher percentage of good-looking people here...

... so, a couple months ago, she made reservations to come here for a January weekend. She arrived last night, just in time for what they are calling the "coldest 48 hours of this winter." There were predictions of temperatures last night as low as minus 22 for the Twin Cities. I'm not sure if it got quite that cold here in the urban core, but it's cold enough for Becky's first below-zero experience....

... and the good-looking people don't have tans and are wearing unflattering parkas and stocking caps... Wonder if that will make a difference in Becky's judgment!

... but she's doing fine and seems to be making the most of her mid-winter visit. As I write this, she and Jerry and Joan are at the Mall of America shopping. That should keep her nice and warm.

double vision

I was whining for no good reason, because my computer transition went well and I'm not finding any major glitches. Windows 7 seems fine (It helped that I had been using Vista at home, so it's not such a stretch as moving right from Windows XP might have been). Thanks for the encouraging feedback from my blog readers!

A new experience: Dual monitors. I have windows open all over the place. It's kinda cool!

technological trauma

I shudder as I write this post. It's the last one I will write from this office computer. My new computer is on its way, and Dave our outside IT guy will install it later this morning...

... and I'm traumatized by the idea of a new office computer! I've had this machine for seven and a half years, a fact that for some reason tells everybody that I'm way out of date, but it's been a great computer and still seems fine to me and if it is somehow deficient, the deficiencies are not obvious to me, the user.

... But will all of my programs still work on the new computer? Something always seems to get lost in a transition -- plus I'm going to be the office trailblazer with Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010... I don't have enough room in my brain to learn new systems!.... Oops, I hear Dave, he's arrived.... Signing off...................... :-(

while under the clippers

As I was walking in the door of the salon, a pile of snow fell off the roof of the building and hit me in the head... so my hair was already wet when I sat in the chair.

Brian, the guy who cuts my hair, didn't seem to notice, and now I am freshly shorn. I've been kind of in a wearing-my-hair-longer frame of mind and Brian seems to love to chop it all off, but he restrained himself mostly.

Things we talked about as he clipped, which also indicates the shallowness of my cerebral functions these days --

-- The football playoffs -- the way the games turned out this past weekend (Mostly great, except for Chicago winning).... (Jerry and I are rooting for the New York Jets to make it to the Superbowl, by the way).
-- How were your holidays?
-- The weather (Of course. This is Minnesota).
-- The Golden Globes. And since you're dying to know, I thought Ricky Gervais was great as host. Not sure if any of the stars are really offended by his jokes. They shouldn't be. But it sounds like Ricky Gervais will never be invited back.
-- Any travel plans coming up? No. None.

Really now, wouldn't making small talk be the worst part of being a barber/hair stylist?

happy MLK day

The video clip is from Martin Luther King's March on Washington (the "I have a dream" speech rally), 28 August 1963.

what hibernation looks like

Hey, it's cold out there, and it's warm in here, so it's a bit of a couch-potato weekend. We had tickets to the Wolves game last night, but it's a cold 8-block walk over to Target Center, so Jerry, Tom and I opted for staying home and curling up under throws and afghans and dozing in front of the TV. Jerry made dinner, and we channel-flipped back and forth between the Wolves game, the Packers-Falcons playoff game (happy to see the Falcons lose), and the Miss America Pageant, which is, surprisingly, back on network TV. Today hasn't been any better. Jerry made us an enormous breakfast, and we've been sipping coffee and eating Entenmanns donut-holes and watching football off and on, with no worthwhile agenda. Hibernating on frigid January weekends is what Floridians miss out on.

... and did you even know that the Miss America Pageant even still existed? It's been all downhill for that organization ever seen it left Atlantic City, and it's only a shell of its former self, but we still found ourselves rooting for Miss Hawaii, who deserved to win, and being outraged that Miss Nebraska won instead. The judges, obviously, were airheads and they picked one of their own.

... and maybe we'll be watching the Golden Globe Awards tonight, if we aren't on couch-potato overload, and finding plenty to complain about... But life is good.

in love with shakespeare

Naomi, sixteen-year-old daughter of my friend and co-worker Theresa, loves Shakespeare, and we have started taking her to local Shakespeare plays as they come about. Last year, it was Macbeth at the Guthrie. This year, we have a bunch of Shakespeare to potentially squeeze into the next several months. Last night, it was The Comedy of Errors, again at the Guthrie (but performed by the Acting Company of New York). Starting soon at the Guthrie will be The Winter's Tale. Within the next several months at various local theaters are a couple of local productions of Hamlet and who knows what else. We find ourselves being educated in Shakespeare by Naomi and whichever friend she brings with her, sometimes in the car on the way to the theater. Last night, there were a lot of other high-school age kids at the show, all bussed in from the suburbs and obviously more prepped for this play than we were.

The Comedy of Errors was funny and entertaining, though. One thing I don't understand about most recent Shakespeare productions is the reasoning behind updating to modern-day dress and a more current time frame instead of original Shakespeare-era settings. Naomi, the Shakespeare purist, agrees with me on this. If the intent is to make Shakespeare more relevant to 21st-century audiences, then they don't seem to realize that it's the Shakespeare English that is difficult, not the funky Shakespeare-era costumes. Oh well, I guess they all know more about this than I do. I struggle just to get the basics.

black swan

Black Swan. The word has been that this movie is intense, and Jerry can handle only so much intensity (on the screen, that is -- not in real life), so he opted out of seeing this film. Jon, my son, can handle lots of intensity on screen, being a fan of numerous slasher movies, and this should movie be a lot tamer and more civilized than those, so he went with me last night to see it. We went to dinner first, at Green Mill over there on Hamline Avenue in St. Paul, and then off to the Highland Theater, a neighborhood theater we hadn't been to in quite a while. The crowd was sparse, maybe because of the snowy streets (St. Paul is infamous for not plowing) or maybe because Black Swan had been playing for a while. We had a fun evening though.

The movie? Well, maybe our expectations were too high, but, although we both liked it, it mostly rated an "okay" from us. The suspense was less than we expected, and the story didn't seem to be all that original. But the acting is good, Natalie Portman especially as the conflicted white swan/black swan, and our favorite aspect of the film may have been the Tschaikovsky Swan Lake soundtrack. Worth seeing, and everybody knows that it will be a nominee for Best Picture Oscar. And I think even Jerry could have handled the intensity level.

who inspires what?

I would be amused, if it weren't such a somber subject, by the video that Sarah Palin defensively released yesterday, in which she basically blames the media for somehow inspiring hatred and violence by implying that she is partially responsible for inspiring hatred and violence with her nasty, divisive, weapon-loving speeches. The ironic part of her blaming the media is that the media have totally created her. It wasn't any accomplishment on her part or her intellect or her skills that made her, theoretically, a would-be Presidential candidate. It was her bizarre uniqueness that made her a celebrity, and it was the media that brought her out of nowhere to become a household name right up there with Paris Hilton. She owes the media for all the money she is making now as a speech-maker and a political cartoon character. If she can't divide people, she has no message. Compare that Palin video to the unifying, sensitive, and articulate speech by President Obama last night. If these are the choices, I'm so thankful that he's the one who is President.

last night's tarmac thoughts

The plane we would be taking was late arriving in Philadelphia. Our flight was supposed to be leaving for Minneapolis at 6:35 PM, and it was well past that when the incoming flight finally landed. Then they had to unload those passengers and get us on the plane as fast as possible so that the people making late connections in Minneapolis wouldn't miss their flights. It was the fastest boarding I've ever seen. Everybody was cooperating, getting their carry-ons stored and getting into their seats quickly. I was impressed.

But then we were loaded, and we just sat there and sat there. The pilot finally came over the intercom to say there was a mechanical problem that had to be checked. So we waited and waited, getting nervous about the people making connections and also about the heavy snow that had started and was accumulating around us while we sat there helplessly. The mechanical issue was resolved eventually, and we pulled away from the gate. And sat some more. And then had to wait to be de-iced. More waiting. Then waiting in line to take off. And finally out of there. Almost everybody that had connections in Minneapolis missed them.

While sitting on the tarmac, I was wishing I could be blogging, although the blog posts would have been frustrated rantings about the annoyances of air travel these days, and you got to hear some of that today anyway. I had the time while waiting to read yesterday's New York Times, which is something I wish I had time to do every day, but that brought some more irritation. There on the front page was a large photo of that demented Arizona killer. I bet you could win the Nobel Peace Prize and not get your picture on the front page of the Times, but you can if you're a nut-case murderer.

And then today I see that Sarah Palin is appalled that people are blaming her and other irresponsible loudmouths of her ilk for helping to create an atmosphere of guns being glamorized and painted as solutions. Her gun talk -- her "don't retreat, re-load!" idiocies -- gives permission to the unstable to go after their perceived political enemies with literal firepower.

...and anyway, I'm home and back at the office, with no time to read the Times today.

PHL to MSP

1.11.11.

On my way to the Philly airport, hoping to beat the winter storm... Had a good visit here in Jersey... Now back to reality. Or is this the reality part?

you know what i mean

Well, Goodbye South Jersey would be more appropriate, and I don't know who this singer is, but I'll flying home out of Philadelphia again tomorrow, which always makes me sad, so you get the idea.

It's been a good visit here, watching as my brother Ronnie recuperates and spending time with my sister Mary. I'm happy to have siblings -- all five of them.

embracing the snow

Staying with my sister Mary while I'm here in South Jersey and having a great time with her. It's been a long time since we've had some one-on-one time.

But this morning, while she went to church, I got in my rental car and drove to Atlantic City, about a half hour away. It was an absolutely beautiful morning. There was a fresh layer of snow everywhere, the sun was shining, the roads were good. It was a perfect winter morning in AC on the Boardwalk.

Mary and I visited yesterday and this afternoon with my brother Ronnie, who is recovering at home and seems to be making good progress. He mostly seems like himself. His immunity is still very low, so he'll be confined at home for a while, but he's in good humor and we had a great time talking and watching the football playoffs (Lamenting the Eagles loss, though).

I'll be leaving on Tuesday, although there is a big snowstorm predicted for here for Tuesday, so who knows, maybe I'll get snowed in here. Maybe that's okay.

MSP to PHL

On my way, an early morning flight to Philly, then the drive over to South Jersey, where snow is predicted for today... :-(

he ain't heavy...

It's been a long, long road for my brother Ronnie the past month, spending most of that time in a hospital in Philadelphia in pretty bad shape. The hospital sent him home on Monday, even though he was still extremely weak from those hellish and scary weeks (there is some question whether it might have been an insurance-company-driven decision to discharge him), but he was thrilled to get home even though he is still very confined and limited. I talked to him on the phone the other night -- he sounded pretty good, although he says he doesn't recognize himself in the mirror anymore.

So, with the intention of trying to help him get through the boredom and tedium of recovery (and not making it worse, I hope!), I'm going to go visit and spend some time with him this weekend. Flying to Philly tomorrow (Saturday) morning, back Tuesday evening. It will be good to see him and my other family members there in South Jersey.

definitely not a susan

I was in the 6th grade, and the teacher, Mr. Taylor, announced to me and the class that my dad had just called to tell me that my mom had just given birth to a baby girl. I am the oldest of six siblings, this new sister is the youngest: three boys, three girls, a good balance. In those first couple days, I lobbied my parents hard to name my new still-unnamed sister "Susan". I'm not sure if they even paid any attention to me, but they named her Joan, and she sure seems like a Joan now.

There are twelve years between me and Joan, but somehow it has turned out that she is the sibling that I know the best, and we are very close.

That 6th grade day was 52 years ago today. Happy Birthday, Joan!

the tears of a clown

The new U.S. Congress starts today. The Republicans are in the majority in the House now, and it looks like there may be a circus atmosphere as they go through the motions of trying to un-do the accomplishments of the Obama Administration, all for short-term political points and not for solutions to long-term problems. The Tea Party faction of their party will be doing their own sideshows of distraction and disruption. It will be an awful session but perhaps kind of entertaining as the media focuses on the clowns.

Leading the circus for the Republicans is the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner -- the guy who cries at the drop of a hat, during speeches, during interviews, usually when talking about himself. There has been a lot of discussion lately about what the reactions would have been if it had been Nancy Pelosi or some other woman politician with so little control of their emotions. Would they have been laughed out of Washington? Probably. But somehow this Boehner dude has reached this pinnacle of political success, and in his new position he has indicated that he does not intend to cooperate with Obama and the Democrats, so here we go with more gridlock.

Not sure whether to watch the spectacle in Congress out of some morbid curiosity, or, out of helplessness, look the other way and take a leave of absense from politics (Like my son Jon is doing). I feel bad for the elected officials who would like to really accomplish something positive. I don't think it's gonna happen.

the walls came tumbling down

My poor hometown of Millville, New Jersey. The city has been going through rough economic times, coincidentally starting at about the time I left in 1976, due to a lack of planning on what would happen if the glass plants all closed (Which they did). Downtown Millville, like many downtowns across the U.S., mostly died, unable to compete with big-box stores outside of the downtown core.

*

Several years ago, a big push was made to turn downtown Millville into an arts center, which has gone fairly well, but the centerpiece of the newly fashioned downtown was to be the renovated Levoy Theater, a 102-year-old theater which hasn't been used in 30-some years. Local citizens formed a non-profit organization and set out to raise the money, and reconstruction started a few months ago.

*

I was surprised, though, when it turned out to be a re-building of the theater as opposed to a renovation. Only the outer walls were saved (the roof was already gone), and everything else was gutted. The dream, as imagined in the picture at the top of this post, ended yesterday, though, when the outer walls collapsed, and the building is now a rubble. Millvillians, past and present, are feeling very sad about this nasty and unexpected turn of events. There are a lot of memories from long ago lost in that pile of bricks.

one of my predictable moments

It was inevitable that this would eventually be one of my Monday videos.... Today, it seemed appropriate. Busy season starts today, the holidays are over, my brain is on hold until at least April 15.

brett favre's last game...

... and he probably will be on the sidelines, not playing because of a concussion...

This afternoon will be the last Vikings game of this football season, since they were too pathetic to make the playoffs. And Brett Favre's final game will be anticlimactic since the game is pretty meaningless and he'll be out of the action. He'll just be over there on the bench while the announcers gush about his career. This his final year as a player just sort of fizzled out, but he found ways to be at least interesting on the field and off the field. He's been a major presence in the sport since 1992, so it's sort of sad to see him finish.

Our friends Tony and Diane are coming over to watch the game on TV with Jerry and Tom and me, saying goodbye to the Vikings 2010-2011 season and preparing for the off-season ways the Vikings will have to stay in the news: Who will be quarterback next year with Favre gone? Will there be a season next year or will there be an owners' lockout? What will happen to the still deflated Metrodome? Will the Vikings move to Los Angeles after the 2011 season if they don't get a new stadium? The drama will continue.

can you picture donny osmond throwing up onstage?

Well, that didn't happen. But it could have. Theoretically. He called in sick instead.

After risking our lives slip-sliding on icy roads last night between Minneapolis and Mystic Lake (20 miles or so) to see Donny & Marie, we sat down for a quick bite to eat at the casino's food court. I went to get us some sodas, and on the way to the free-soda machine, I saw the signs that said that Donny had the flu, hadn't been able to make the trip to Minnesota, and that Marie would be performing solo. We were there for my sister Joan, the Osmond fan, and I had the dreadful task of going back to the table and telling her that our plans had gone awry, that her beloved Donny was a no-show. I give her lots of credit for not bursting into tears on the spot. She had already decided that 2010 was a bust, and this was just icing on the cake, the year's last gotcha.

But you know what? Marie's solo show turned out to be pretty darn entertaining, and we had a good time regardless. The casino gave us gift cards to partially make up for Donny's non-appearance, we gambled a little afterwards and rang in the New Year as we went slip-sliding home.